South-Yarra,
29/9/93.
T. R. Wilson Esqr
Under Secretary.
Sir.
I have the honor to beg of you, to convey to the honorable the Premier and Minister of the Department1 my profound gratitude for the generous and enlightened manner, in which the hon. Gentleman supported the establishment, when the vote passed through Parliament.2 I am all the more grateful for the Minister's recognition of my services, as the Australian Association holds this very week its Meeting in Adelaide.3 In justice to myself I may to be allowed to add, that altho' no contingencies-vote exists in this establishment now, I have kept up its work to the fullest extent, the correspondence (official) having been larger than in any other year, about 5000 letters, or what would be equivalent, largely rural and industrial, nearly all professionally from my own hands.
I have the honor to be,
Sir, your obedient servant
Ferd. von Mueller,
Gov Botanist.
James Patterson was Premier and Chief Secretary.
During the consideration of the Estimates of Government expenditure by the Legislative Assembly on 28 September 1893, the Member for Ballarat West, Richard Vale, questioned the wisdom of retaining the post of Government Botanist. Members, including Patterson, supported M, variously citing the value of his work in introducing Marram grass to stop the spread of sand in the Western District, on promoting the value of Eucalyptus locally and abroad, and of his Select extra-tropical plants; the proposed vote was agreed to (Victorian Hansard, vol. 73, pp. 1901-4).
An editorial in the Age (Melbourne), 29 September 1893, p. 4, criticized the government's handling of M's budget and, in particular, the inclusion in it of a salary for Gerhard Renner; see notes to M to T. Wilson, 14 August 1893 (in this edition as 93-08-14a).
Fifth Meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, Adelaide, September 1893.
The file also contains a typed copy of this letter, presumably made at the Chief Secretary's Department.
Please cite as “FVM-93-09-29a,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on